When Period Dramas Reveal the Truth About Creative Independence
Jane Austen's Guide to Authenticity for Modern Creative Entrepreneurs
Full transparency - Jane Austen isn't the only woman author of her era with wisdom for modern entrepreneurs. But she made decisions that are still visceral for creative and compassionate women entrepreneurs today.
You know that familiar feeling that creeps up, where you’re suddenly aware of your heartbeat, telling yourself you should be creating this, that, or the other, while simultaneously thinking of all the reasons it won't work? Because it hasn't taken off in six months like you imagined, and “what's wrong with you?”, and “what is it going to take to make this work, and where's the money coming from, and how do I stop the resistance and pushing all the time and start feeling more flow and seeing more results and actually fully realise and enjoy this business?!”
That moment when the business you're building feels simultaneously like your greatest calling and your biggest risk.
We go into business thinking if we build it, they will come. Two years later we realise it could never work like that because we didn't know what we didn't know. We just started writing our story believing in the happy ever after, only to discover we were missing half the plot.
Your gifts are real.
The transformation you could create for people is real.
The potential for building something meaningful and profitable feels so close you can almost taste it.
But there's also that other voice, the one that whispers about what happens if you can't make this work.
The voice that says maybe you should just go back to working for someone else. Get a regular paycheck. Stop this exhausting cycle of hope and uncertainty.
Because you know, deep in your bones, that going back to working for "the man" would feel like suffocating. Being treated like an employee instead of the respected, valuable human leader you are. Having your ideas dismissed or watered down by people who understand less than you do. Spending your best creative energy making someone else's vision come to life while your purpose withers.
Even worse is the thought of being unseen for your real talents, under-appreciated in so many ways, when you can glimpse a life of fulfilment carving your own path in your own business. You know what you're capable of creating. You can see how you could transform people's lives with your wisdom and approach.
Returning to a world where you're corseted into others' expectations feels soul-destroying, even with the promise of financial security.
But there's one thing that's like a stone in your shoe pretending to be a soft slipper: all the "proven systems" for growing an online business feel just as suffocating as employment. Cookie-cutter course creation formulas that promise guaranteed results if you just follow their rigid template.
Creating digital offers that let you share your wisdom with more people while reducing your reliance on one-to-one work - it makes genuine business sense. The potential to create meaningful transformation while building sustainable income is real. But not when you're forcing your brilliance into someone else's predetermined container.
When a night at the theatre becomes a business revelation
I was reflecting on this exact tension after my night at the beautiful Capitol Theatre in Melbourne - all that gorgeous art deco architecture - watching My Fair Lady on the big screen. After a fantastic 1920s jazz band performance, I settled in for what I thought would be a feel-good musical. I know all the songs, love the Ascot scene, still laugh at the jokes.
But I'd forgotten the ending. When it came, I was absolutely furious.
Eliza Doolittle doesn't choose Freddie, who genuinely loves her but is poor. She goes back to that horrid Professor Higgins! He’d treated her like his creation rather than recognising her own intelligence, dismissed her feelings completely, and seen her as an experiment rather than a person. Then he sings "I've grown accustomed to her face" (or as I like to sing it, "I've thrown a custard in her face") and misses having her bring him tea and slippers. Diddums. Yet she returns to this man who cannot express love in any meaningful way.
(Thank goodness for the gin and soda at the Victoria Hotel afterwards with my friends to properly debrief that infuriating ending - though perhaps the point is to show how one kind of security comes at the cost of another.)
The parallel jumped out at me - how this speaks to the lived experience of developing a business in an online world when so much of showing up online feels like a war with our inner world.
Merle Oberon as Catherine with Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff at her deathbed in Wuthering Heights (1939)
Because Eliza's choice isn't unique. Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights makes the same devastating decision - choosing Edgar Linton's respectability over Heathcliff's wild authenticity. "It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now," she says, and we watch her literally die from the betrayal of her own nature.
(I can hear Kate Bush now... "Heathcliff, it's me, it's Cathy... let me in-a your window" - Cathy's ghost, forever locked out of the authentic life she should have chosen.)
When we abandon our true path for someone else's version of safety, part of us dies too.
The women who chose differently
That's when I remembered Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth Bennet faces the exact same choice - accept Mr Collins's proposal for financial security or choose uncertainty. Just thinking about his oily, self-satisfied proposal still gives me chills. But unlike Eliza, Elizabeth refuses to compromise her authentic self for safety, even when later pressured by Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
"I am only resolved to act in that manner which will, in my opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me."
(Oh Elizabeth, you legend - how ardently I love that you said this!)
She's basically saying "I'm going to build my life my way, regardless of what everyone else expects."
Then there's Jane Austen herself - the woman behind Elizabeth's fierce independence. Austen refused three marriage proposals, trusting her writing enough to choose the uncertainty of spinsterhood and financial dependence on her family over security with men she didn't love. She had confidence in her own creative work, which gave her the courage to say no to the 18th century equivalent of "getting a steady job."
Colette - French Novelist, 1873-1954
And Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette - the French writer brilliantly portrayed by Keira Knightley (Elizabeth Bennet to Matthew Macfadyen's Darcy in the beloved 2005 Pride and Prejudice) who brings that same spirited defiance to her portrayal of Colette in the 2018 biographical film. She writes the wildly successful Claudine novels, but her husband Willy controls the publishing, takes credit for her work, and manages all the profit.. Colette faces a choice many of us recognise: keep letting someone else control and profit from your work (steady income, but your creativity serves their agenda), or fight to reclaim ownership and risk the uncertainty of making it on your own.
That moment in the film where she finally puts her own name on her writing is electric - you can feel both the terror and exhilaration of claiming what's rightfully hers. Her fight for creative ownership established her as one of France's greatest writers.
What these stories reveal about modern business choices
Here's what strikes me about these women: their "risky" choices actually created more sustainable success than the "safe" options ever could have.
Elizabeth's authenticity is what makes her irresistible to Darcy. Jane Austen's confidence in her own creative work gave her the courage to refuse financially sensible marriages. Colette's fight for creative ownership established her as one of France's greatest writers.
The very thing that felt most dangerous was actually their greatest strength.
Every time you force your wisdom into someone else's course creation template, you're facing Elizabeth Bennet's choice. Every time you let a "proven system" override your instincts about what your audience actually needs, you're in Colette's position - letting someone else profit from your insights instead of trusting your own vision.
Your resistance to traditional business formulas might be wisdom, not fear. When something feels wrong in your body, when a "proven system" makes you feel disconnected from your own work, that's valuable information.
Beyond the fear into authentic creation
The women in these stories didn't succeed despite their unconventional choices. They succeeded because of them. Their authentic approaches became their competitive advantage.
What would your business look like if you designed it like Elizabeth Bennet approached life - based on what would constitute your happiness, without reference to what everyone else expects?
What offers would you create if you approached them like Jane Austen approached writing - following your authentic vision rather than commercial pressures?
The invitation to design your own path
These period dramas remind us that the choice between security and authenticity isn't new. But they also show us what becomes possible when we stop trying to fit predetermined moulds and start designing something that reflects who we actually are.
Your natural way of processing information might be exactly how your ideal clients need to receive it. Your unconventional approaches to sharing wisdom might be precisely what creates the deepest transformation.
When we give ourselves permission to create from our authentic strengths rather than prescribed formulas, we often discover that the most powerful ways to share our wisdom were available to us all along.
Ready to discover your authentic approach?
If these stories resonate with you, if you're ready to stop forcing your brilliance into someone else's formula, I'd love to help you discover what your authentic path might look like.
I'm offering individual Creative Vision Sessions (I call it a Clarity Brainstorm) - 90 minutes on Zoom where we explore your natural strengths, your current business reality, and how you might design offers that feel like coming home instead of putting on a costume.
We'll explore:
What approaches energise you versus drain you
How your audience actually wants to engage with your wisdom
What format would showcase your strengths most effectively
How to design something that works for your current life and business stage
These sessions are just $147 AUD - designed to be accessible while you're figuring out your next authentic steps.
Book your Creative Vision / Clarity Brainstorm Session here
Like Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Austen, and Colette, your authentic path might be exactly what the world needs.
